Maryland big man Alex Len has not been able to work out with NBA teams—he is coming off surgery to fix a stress fracture in his ankle. And yet he has moved to the rumor-mill forefront of this year’s draft.

Len is visiting Charlotte, which holds the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft, to meet with team officials on Tuesday. He was in New Orleans over the weekend, and it was while there that NOLA.com reported that Len is “the likely choice” for the Cavaliers at No. 1.

Alex Len averaged 11.9 points per game as a sophomore for Maryland. (AP Photo)

That would be a sizable leap for Len, who is projected as a Top 10 pick. He has yet to meet with the Cavs, but that meeting should take place sometime near the end of the week. The Cavaliers will host Nerlens Noel, the favorite to go No. 1, on Thursday, and in addition to him and Len, are seriously considering Kansas guard Ben McLemore, Georgetown’s Otto Porter and UNLV forward Anthony Bennett. Not only is Len injured, but Noel (ACL) and Bennett (shoulder) are coming off surgery.

Len will have the ankle checked out by Dr. James Andrews while in Charlotte, and it should not affect him long-term. He said he played the final two months of the Terps’ season with the bum ankle. “I thought it was a growth spurt, that is what the doctors told me,” Len said. “But, I did an MRI right after the season, and it was a stress fracture. … I didn’t really have to do the surgery, but the doctor told me it was going to help me in the long run, so I decided to do it.”

Len, a native of the Ukraine, averaged 11.9 points and 7.8 rebounds as a sophomore, shooting 53.4 percent from the field. One complaint scouts registered about him is that the system of Maryland coach Mark Turgeon did not showcase Len’s offense enough, and while his defense is known to be solid, there is some question about what his offensive potential in the NBA will be.

Len agreed that his offensive game didn’t develop much in college. “I think so,” he said. “But coach Turgeon, he is a defensive minded coach. So I was focused on trying to guard and help the team’s defense. He didn’t really care how I played on offense. I was fine with that. I did my role.”

But in Cleveland, Len would not be expected to score much, not with a backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters. The Cavaliers have power forward Tristan Thompson, too, and with questions about whether Noel has the size and bulk to handle the center spot in the NBA, Noel and Thompson could fight for minutes. Thompson took a big leap in his development last year, averaging 11.7 points and 9.4 rebounds, starting every game.

And there is one other point in Len’s favor—when he faced Noel head-to-head in the Terps’ season opener back in November, he scored 23 points with 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. In fairness to Noel, that was the first game of his college career, but he finished with four points on 2-for-6 shooting , and had nine rebounds.

“I think I did pretty well in that game,” Len said. “It was good for me to show scouts, NBA scouts, what I can be in the future, I showed my potential.”

Indeed, though the Cavs are still in the decision-making process, Len apparently showed the potential to be the top pick this year.